Historical Debt Outstanding | U.S. Treasury Fiscal Data
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Historical Debt Outstanding
Historical Debt Outstanding
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Introduction
01/01/1790 — 09/30/2025
Released
Annually
10/02/2025
New Data Expected
10/02/2026
Data Table
Historical Debt Outstanding is a dataset that provides a summary of the U.S. government's total outstanding debt at the end of each fiscal year from 1789 to the current year. Between 1789 and 1842, the fiscal year began in January. From January 1842 until 1977, the fiscal year began in July. From July 1977 onwards, the fiscal year has started in October. Between 1789 and 1919, debt outstanding was presented as of the first day of the next fiscal year. From 1920 onwards, debt outstanding has been presented as of the final day of the fiscal year. This is a high-level summary of historical public debt and does not contain a breakdown of the debt components.
Reports and Files
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Dataset Properties
Data Table Name
Field Name
Display Name
Description
Data Type
Is Required
Historical Debt Outstanding
record_date
Record Date
The date that data was published.
DATE
Historical Debt Outstanding
debt_outstanding_amt
Debt Outstanding Amount
The Total Debt Outstanding represents the face amount or principal amount of marketable and non-marketable securities currently outstanding. Total debt outstanding is expressed as of fiscal year end.
CURRENCY
Historical Debt Outstanding
src_line_nbr
Source Line Number
Indicates the row of the corresponding table where a data point can be found. This can assist in structuring the data in a similar format to the published report and in understanding potential hierarchies within the table.
INTEGER
Historical Debt Outstanding
record_fiscal_year
Fiscal Year
The fiscal year associated with record_date. The federal government's fiscal year runs from October 1 to September 30.
YEAR
Historical Debt Outstanding
record_fiscal_quarter
Fiscal Quarter Number
The fiscal quarter associated with record_date. For the federal government these quarters are: Q1 - October to December, Q2 - January to March, Q3 - April to June, Q4 - July to September.
QUARTER
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Definition
Notes & Known Limitations
Total Public Debt Outstanding Disclaimer
There are six datasets on Fiscal Data which include the national debt, which is referred to as Total Public Debt Outstanding (TPDO). TPDO is the sum of Debt Held by the Public and Intragovernmental (Intragov) Holdings. Some datasets include debt issued by the Federal Financing Bank (FFB). The datasets listed below only include debt issued by the Treasury Department. The list below provides information on where there are differences in debt calculations related to the national debt.
Debt to the Penny contains TPDO, as well as a breakout of Debt Held by the Public and Intragov Holdings. In this dataset, Intragov Holdings includes debt issued by the FFB.
Historical Debt Outstanding contains TPDO, but no breakout of Debt Held by the Public and Intragov Holdings. In this dataset, TPDO includes debt issued by the FFB.
Daily Treasury Statement (DTS) contains Debt Held by the Public and Intragov Holdings, but does not aggregate these two categories into TPDO. In this dataset, Intragov Holdings includes debt issued by the FFB. Dollar values for Debt Held by the Public and Intragov Holdings are rounded in millions to cohere with other data in the dataset. Please note that the published reports on the Fiscal Service site contain TPDO values.
Monthly Treasury Statement (MTS) contains TPDO, as well as a breakout of Debt Held by the Public and Intragov Holdings. In this dataset, Intragov Holdings includes debt issued by the FFB.
Monthly Statement of the Public Debt (MSPD) contains TPDO, as well as a breakout of Debt Held by the Public and Intragov Holdings. In this dataset, Intragov Holdings includes debt issued by the FFB. Dollar values are rounded in millions to cohere with other data in the dataset.
Schedules of Federal Debt contains Debt Held by the Public and Intragov Holdings, but does not aggregate these two categories into TPDO. In this dataset, Intragov Holdings do not include debt issued by the FFB. Dollar values are rounded in millions to cohere with other data in the dataset.
End Total Public Debt Outstanding Disclaimer
The first fiscal year for the U.S. Government started January 1, 1789. There are two entries in calendar year 1843 that coincide with the change in the start of the fiscal year for the federal government. However, there is only one entry in calendar year 1977 when the fiscal year was changed to the current format. Some columns in this dataset overlap with the
Debt to the Penny
Daily Treasury Statement (DTS)
U.S. Treasury Monthly Statement of the Public Debt (MSPD)
, and
Monthly Treasury Statement (MTS)
datasets.
Downloaded CSV files with values greater than $10 trillion may have the final two digits (cents) excluded due to digit limits enforced by the application used to access the file. The JSON and XML file downloads are not impacted by this limitation.
Total Public Debt Outstanding = Debt Held by the Public + Intragovernmental Holdings
Total Public Debt Outstanding is represented in this dataset by the Debt Outstanding Amount variable and does not contain the separate Debt Held by the Public and Intragovernmental Holdings amounts.
Please note that Total Public Debt Outstanding may be calculated differently within different datasets. See those datasets Notes & Known Limitations section for more details.
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Fields
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Dataset Properties
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